“Golden Age,” Quiescence, and Revival: How the Sociology of Professions Became the Study of Knowledge-Based Work

Both professional work and the sociological study of professional work experienced a “golden age” in the mid-20th century. When dramatic changes began to shake the professions in the 1970s and 1980s, however, old approaches no longer fit, and the research area became quiescent. Yet interest in profe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Work and occupations 2011-08, Vol.38 (3), p.275-302
Main Authors: Gorman, Elizabeth H., Sandefur, Rebecca L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
Age
Autonomy
Communities
Community
Experts
Income
Knowledge
Knowledge base
Names
Occupation
Occupational status
Profession
Professionalism
Professions
Sociological Research
Sociology
Sociology of work
Streams
Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:Both professional work and the sociological study of professional work experienced a “golden age” in the mid-20th century. When dramatic changes began to shake the professions in the 1970s and 1980s, however, old approaches no longer fit, and the research area became quiescent. Yet interest in professional work simply “went underground,” surfacing under other names in a variety of sociological and interdisciplinary fields. In the process, researchers’ focus expanded to include a broader range of “expert” or “knowledge-based” occupations as well as traditional professions. This essay brings these disparate research streams together and shows that they cohere around four central themes: expert knowledge, autonomy, a normative orientation grounded in community, and high status, income, and other rewards.
ISSN:0730-8884
1552-8464
DOI:10.1177/0730888411417565